Dreaded and feared!

Today's walk, from La Mesa to Grandes Salime, was not long, only 18K, but descriptions of it are so daunting that last night I took a small sleeping potion since I had hardly slept the night before and wanted to be at my very best to tackle the demands awaiting. Aside from some long climbs, one of which was on the road (that always makes it harder), there was a 7K descent that was described as being so steep that if you had any cartilage at all left in your knees by the end of it, you would be most fortunate. Oh, and there was that 45 minute taxi ride that can make you use the verb marearse. Turned out that the taxi ride was OK after all (I think the driver was trying very hard to take it easy on the curves), and the walk was no big deal. Where all the hype comes from, I have no idea.

It was a gorgeous day:





Oh, no! They left me behind all by my baby self:




Old (very) church:




Walking above the clouds!




Then IN the clouds:




All undressed except for the cones:





There is a BIG dam that is the feature of this stage. I have not seen a lot of BIG dams; maybe they are all very ugly:




But once you see things from the other side, you might think you are looking at Loch Ness!




You are VERY high up walking around the dam and a stone wall is the barrier between you and oblivion. However, every twenty feet or so, there is a big gap in the wall, so that if you were walking with someone you did not like at all, and you gave them a nudge at just the right moment, well......uh oh!





One does have to admire the engineering skills that go into building a dam. But when you look closely at an old wagon wheel, and see all the parts and labor, that is pretty impressive, too.





as was the laying of these stones:



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